Hezbollah Denies Diamond Merchant Extortion Claims

The Hezbollah terrorist group is coercing Lebanese diamond merchants in West Africa into handing over money under the threat of harming family members in Lebanon, according to American diplomats in West Africa.

The allegations are supported by independent analysts but denied by some traders and show a level of coercion that is well beyond that acknowledged up to now by most U.S. officials.

“One thing that's incontrovertible is the financing of Hezbollah,” Larry Andre, deputy chief of mission for the U.S. Embassy in diamond-rich Sierra Leone, told The Associated Press.

“It's not even an open secret; there is no secret. There's a lot of social pressure and extortionate pressure brought to bear: `You had better support our cause, or we'll visit your people back home,'” said Andre, citing interviews by embassy staff with Lebanese merchants claiming to have been targets of the Hezbollah racketeering.

An estimated 100,000 Lebanese live in West Africa, although only 6,000 Lebanese are thought to remain in Sierra Leone following its brutal war from 1991 to 2002 war for control of the diamond fields surrounding Koidu.

The U.S. Embassy in Sierra Leone, citing experts, says between $70 million - $100 million worth of rough gems are smuggled out of the country each year, due largely to the lingering illegal trade for which Hezbollah can continue to extract cash by threats, beatings and destruction of property, according to analysts.